SAR #10012

Never ask them the questions they prepared for.

Red Queen's Race:  In December, 1999, there were 130.5 million employed Americans. In December, 2009, there were 130.9 million employed Americans.  In between, the population grew by 30 million people.  Not all of them are minors.

Cloak and Stagger:  America pays $75 billion a year for “intelligence”.  How we doing?  General Flynn, US/NATO G-2 in Afghanistan says the intelligence people are generally “clueless, ignorant of local economics and landowners, hazy about who the power-brokers are and how they might be influenced... and disengaged from people in the best position to find answers...  Eight years into the war in Afghanistan, the U.S. intelligence community is only marginally relevant to the overall strategy."

Things You Suspected #48:   There are now more people working for the government than in jobs actually producing things.

Give and Take:  The National Climatic Data Center reported that December was 3.2ºF cooler than the 1901 – 2000 average and was the 14th coldest in the last 115 years.  They also reported that for the entire year 2009 was slightly warmer than the long term average for the 13th year in a row and that 21 of the last 24 years have been unusually warm in the US.

China  (a) is the world's largest market for autos  (b) is the world's largest exporter of autos  (c) has the world's largest banks and/or (d) is too big for our own good.

Then and Now:  When the GOP passed the budget-busting Medicare Prescription giveaway, they told us deficits don't matter.  When the Dems pass a [reportedly] fully-funded, deficit-reducing health care reform , the GOP says we can't afford to save the money.  Or something like that.

Simon Fitch Says:  Delinquencies in commercial real estate have increased 500% to date, but will not peak until 2012, with 12% of outstanding commercial mortgages defaulting.

Salvation Needs Saving:  The nation's biodiesel boondoggle, having lost its $1 a gallon Federal subsidy, has come to a sudden stop.  Without the taxpayers' gift to prop up production, plants are idling, waiting for politicians to reinstate the subsidy and buy the farm vote.

Summary Judgment:  December was the worst month for unemployment in the US since the Great Depression.  The labor force contracted by 661,000 as Americans dropped out of the system.  The real unemployment rate rose to 17.3%. Wall Street rallied.

Keeping Score:  The U.S. has imprisoned 2,500 children since 9/11 as “enemy combatants”, some of whom were raped. Not surprising, in that Bush's AG Yoo argued that crushing a child's testicles was legal if the president wanted it to be. Some detainee's children were “tortured using insects,"  Their children, not the detainees.  At State , Col Wilkerson said that many of those tortured were innocent, but that the Bush administration did not really care whether they were innocent or not.  Bagram is far worse than Guantanamo ever was, and atrocities continue there. Change you can believe in.

Job Bank:  The Census Bureau will hire 1.2 million temporary employees to conduct the census.  Keep this in mind as the government employment figures inflate.

32,000 Leading Scientists...  Nearly all those 'scientists' who deny smoking is bad for you global climate change are (a) nonexistent, (b) not scientists, (c) bribed by big business, (d) crazier than bedbugs.  Take 10 minutes and learn how to lie, scientificly.

Nesting Behavior:  Girls who go through puberty before the age of 12 tend to be more aggressive, experience increased parental conflict, and have higher rates of delinquency.  It also may “lead to more substantial offending behavior” as they mature.

Identity:  Half the cost of growing wheat is energy, 40% of the cost of growing corn or sorghum is energy cost – it is hard to find any crop where a primary cost is not energy.  Modern agriculture is the process of making petroleum and natural gas edible. What do you think an increase in the price of petroleum will lead to at the grocery?  Ah.

Porn O'Graph:  Will the guilty please raise their hands?